272 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



the queen. I looked until I was sure she was not in 

 sight (there were some behind the water bottle), 

 and then shook the adhering bees off into the hive 

 and gave a more minute examination, and found 

 her fastened in behind the bottle, dead. I closed the 

 hive in despair, and did uot open it again until the 

 middle of February, when brood rearing had well 

 started. I was going to try an experiment. An old 

 bee-keeper was at my house not long since, and as- 

 serted that bees more than 10 days old could not 

 make a queen. 1 opened my hive, and to my be- 

 wilderment, I found plenty of eggs, larvae, capped 

 brood and plenty of young bees just hatched. I ex- 

 amined and found an Italian queen as fine looking 

 as any I ever saw. 



You have always beaten me in the strange things 

 which 1 have discovered, but I don't think you can 

 this time. Perha s you think the queen you sent 

 did not die, and that I was mistaken. I know it was 

 a dead queen I saw, besides, that decision will be 

 against you, for I am sure the young bees are hy- 

 brids, and you proposed to send me a tested qufen. 

 The bees were so young and so i 1 (against you 

 again) that 1 could not fully satisfy myself as to 

 their purity, but I intend to ascertain, and will let 

 you know. 



Again the same old "bee-man" said that bees will 

 steal eggs from another hive, and make a queen. I 

 thought perhaps the cag^d queen might have laid 

 some eggs in the cage, and the bees might have got 

 one; but fertilization would have been almost im- 

 possible, for I feel sure there had not been a drone 

 within 5 miles of me in 2 months previous to the 

 15th of Dec. Now how will you account for it? 



Cabot, Ark., March 16, 1880. B. P. Cathey. 



I should say, friend C, that there were 

 two queens in the hive in the tirst plane. 

 You destroyed one, and introduced another, 

 and there were still two. Another explana- 

 tion might be that a small swarm swarmed 

 out, and clustered on this hive, and the 

 queen was allowed to crawl in. Such things 

 often happen in the winter, when the weath- 

 er is warm enough. A weak hybrid swarm 

 might have come from the woods, if there 

 were none near you. We quite often find 

 queens in our apiary when, according to the 

 "slates" there should be none. As we have 

 several reports of queens getting lost in the 

 manner mentioned, cages should always be 

 made so that no corners or places are left 

 where a queen or bee can get wedged in or 

 caught. 



«■ ■ >■ mm 



NOVEIi DISCOVERY IN \ATIHAL HIS- 

 TORY. 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



W HS 



A paper read before the Aaricultu ml CuRrgr Natural 

 History Society, on Friday evening, April 23. 



tHEN Hamlet said, "There are more things in 

 heaven and earth than are dreamt of in 

 your philosophy, Horatio," science had 

 scarce put aside her swaddling cloth. Now the 

 prince would say, "There are more things in earth 

 alone than a Yankee could guess at, though wide 

 awake." Yet these wonders, which science is so 

 rapidly unearthing, seem to grow none the less, 

 though discovery be so active, if we may judge by 

 the revelations of the recent past. The last year, 

 and even the past few months, have shown unusu- 

 al activity in seicutifle discovery. 



It has long been known that wonders are accom- 

 plished in vegetable growth, during the almost per- 

 petual sunlight of the sub-arctic summer. This fact 

 incites Dr. Siemens to try the effect of electric light 

 on plants. He finds it equally potent with real sun- 

 light. He supplements sunlight with electric light, 

 keeping the plants bathed in light for 24 hours in 

 each day, when lo ! the growth is doubled. This 

 proves that plants need no resting period. The 

 practical bearing of this fairly makes one's mouth 

 water. Just think of strawberries of our own rais- 

 ing by the first of June, and then on till late in July. 



Prof. Wolcott shows us that those curious nonde- 

 scripts, the old trilobites of the paleozoic world, so 

 long thought apodal, were well supplied with ex- 

 cellent feet, and by thin sections of the fossils them- 

 selves proves it, A startling discovery in geology ! 

 Physiologists have just demonstrated, contrary to 

 all past teaching, that the scrotal cavity is already 

 lined with the peritoneum before the descent of the 

 organs which are to occupy it. Thus thp old inex- 

 plicable view of pushing the peritoneum in advance 

 is pushed aside. Physiologists have also shown that 

 the uterine mucou3 membrane is a decidua vera, 

 not only at parturition, but at every catemenial. 



But the most curious discovery comes to us from 

 Rev. Dr. Mccook of Philadelphia, whose researches 

 among those wonders of animal life, the ants, have 

 become famous the world over. It is he who has 

 confirmed the wonderful discoveries of Lincecum, 

 in reference to the agricultural ant of Texas, which 

 were long thought, because of their very rnarvelms 

 and unique character, to be creatures of an active 

 imagination. These ants not only construct cities 

 with paved streets, but they build roadway's, clear 

 land, and sow grain, which they have transported 

 often for a considerable distance. 



This late discovery of Dr. McCook has to do with 

 an ant which peoples New Mexico and Colorado. 

 The immediate point of Dr. McCook's researches 

 was 'the garden of the gods," the nests of the ants 

 being excavated in the stony crests of low ridges, 

 which run through this mountain girt paradise. 

 The nests themselves are a veritable labyrinth, 

 made up of various chambers, connected by gal- 

 leries, which extend for several feet into the friable 

 sandstone. The carving of the chambers is usually 

 smooth, though the ceilings are left rough. This 

 roughness is no matter of accident or carelessness, 

 but is fashioned purposely, that the tiny feet of a 

 most wonderful living store-house may bear up 

 their large burden of sweet nectar. This store- 

 house is truly a unique among created things. It is 

 simply an ant whose abdomen has lost all semblance 

 of its former form and structure, and become a ca- 

 pacious reservoir for liquid sweets. Even the ab- 

 dominal viscera, now useless, to this inactive sta- 

 tionary being, have been snatched away by ever 

 frugal nature. The only muscular development s 



needed would be that of the legs which bear up this 

 sack of honey, and that necessary to drink down 

 and pump up the honey as it was received from or 

 yielded up to the others of the household, and there- 

 fore little else is found. The sack is the size of a 

 large pea ; all the rest, less than a pin head. Each 

 nest contains 10 chambers, and each chamber 30 of 

 these live honey bags, making 300 of the latter in 

 all. Besides these there are other hundreds, yea 

 thousands, consisting of the lords, ladies, soldiers, 

 and laborers, peculiar to all ant communities. Dr. 

 McCook now has a colony of these curious insects in 



